Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #379

Here we go again, still soldiering on and with more easing of lock down. We'll be watching the infection statistics with interest.

I'm seeing quite a few people's comments on blogs saying, quite truthfully, that they're scared to go back out into the 'open world such as it is', now that restrictions are being eased. I can empathise so much with that  - it worries me that all this might be a bit too soon and, for what it's worth, if going out at this early stage is going to stress you out - stay safely at home until things really do seem to be much improved. Not everyone is in the position of being able to do that I know - but if it's an option then stay home if you feel overwhelmed by venturing out. There again, I certainly don't wish to spent the remainder of my life locked in at home!

Finally got round to baking the cheese scones I've been threatening to make for literally weeks. Totally yummy recipe (BBC Good Food one) with a few tweaks by yours truly. The main one was to use buttermilk rather than ordinary milk and what a difference it seemed to make. 

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight, and it has nothing to do with the prize(s) on offer this fortnight! Well, there is a very tenuous link but you'll have to read on to find that one out:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" rose pink card blank, tent style

- a snippet of off-white card trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and with a faint pencil line drawn horizontally right across the centre

- I returned to the lovely roll of Altenew 'Vibrant Spray Die Cut Tape' (as I was making another run of cards to enclose with prizes) and cut a length of the die cut tape so that I had all the pink flowers in the pattern showing, to match the card blank itself

- then, I sliced the die cut tape piece horizontally right across the centre (ahem, at least as close as possible that is!)

- then placed the top section of the tape about quarter of an inch above the pencil line on the white panel and then the bottom section about quarter of an inch below the line - thereby leaving a half inch gap across the middle of the card

- I wrapped the tape ends around the back of the white panel rather than trimming it but, in fact, trimming it works better as I ended up adding a strip of sellotape to each side at the back to stop the die cut tape from coming away from the card

- then I stamped the sentiment onto another snippet of the off-white card using Versafine's Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad and a stamp from a Simon Says Stamp set of 'Handwritten Borders' sentiment stamps

- trimmed the sentiment strip to about half an inch height and adhered it to a border strip of the rose pink card (left from when I trimmed the rose pink card blank down to A2 size)

- then glued the sentiment strip across the gap between the upper and lower parts of the die cut tape and trimmed off any excess from the back

- finally, glued the whole panel onto the card front card front - finished! 

It was fun to use the 'Vibrant Spray' tape a second way, and I have a couple of other ideas buzzing round - but I still like the original card which I posted HERE the best. I made six cards the same once again. The off-white card was lurking in the bottom of a box where I keep all my 6" square card blanks, as were the rose pink cards. In real life it does match the off-white edges of the die cut border very well. However, I have no idea what possessed me to buy rose pink card blanks in the first place so it was good to finally find a use for them!

And here's the tenuous link to the prize.  As I tidied my card making stuff away, I cleaned my stamp using one of these:

It's a Lawn Fawn Shammy - and there are three of these on offer. It's over two years since I first bought one and offered a couple as prizes so I thought it would be nice to offer three this time. Three chances to win has to be good! I love my stamp cleaning shammy and use it all the time. Sure, they end up stained but that doesn't affect the performance. I keep mine in a small zip lock bag in a desk drawer where I can easily grab it. No more stray bits of lint from baby wipes - hooray!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 13th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Dudley continues to be an absolute delight here, he's more loving than ever right now, although he still resists his daily grooming sessions - little tinker.

I managed to take this photo of him on Thursday afternoon, right at the start of his grooming session as he sat up and prepared to 'do battle' with me:

Unfortunately, he was a bit distracted by the fact I had my camera in my right hand and he began to 'wobble' a bit. He was perilously close to the edge of the table I groom him on so I did gently support one of his paws as he would have come a real cropper had he tumbled sideways! Normally, both paws are either down like his other paw is or raised like a boxing hare or kangeroo. When he's at ground level, dancing and wanting a treat, he sort of pirouettes with his front paws literally out sideways like a ballerina keeping her balance. He's a dog of many poses :) 

Here's a photo of our favourite poppy in full bloom. There are too many buds to count - which is as well as they're gigantic pale pink Californian poppies and the petals are so delicate that it just takes one breezy day to almost decimate any open blooms. But their short lived beauty is a sight to behold:

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Faux pour backgrounds

I'm still loving the Joanna Sheen 'Faux Pour' background papers - and the other day I whipped up a couple of general purpose cards, using a different design of paper plus a couple of new (unused but pre-owned) rose dies. I actually bought a job lot of five of these Poppy Stamps 'Rose Collection' dies in different designs from a Facebook Craft De-cluttering group - absolute bargain as well!

Here's are the two cards I made:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blanks, one used vertically with a side opening and the other used horizontally, tent style

- pieces of the same white card stock as a 'frame', trimmed to 5.25" x 4", for the faux pour paper and glued onto the card front

- then a layer of Faux Pour paper from Pad No. 1, by Joanna Sheen, - trimmed to 5" x 3.75" and glued in place

- die cut the two rose dies using my Altenew mini die cutting machine and more white card the same as the card blank. The rose dies are both made by Poppy Stamps and are called 'Rose Stem' and 'Country Rose Corner'

- die cut the sentiment words, again from the same white card, using dies from the Penny Black 'Hooray' set of dies

- glued the die cuts in place using a fine Zig glue pen - finished!

Little tip, each of the sentiment words has a 'dot' above the letter i. It was easy to leave those sitting in the die cuts, adhere the actual word then pop a little touch of glue using the glue pen onto the back of the 'dots' before laying the aperture from the die cut word over the glued in place word and gently pop the dots out onto the card front. Perfect placement and also much less chance of losing the little perishers!

Once again, I'd like to add my card(s) into Darnell's NBUS challenge #14. Love this challenge and it's really encouraging me to use the rather shameful mass of NBUS languishing here.  

Rudolph Days Challenge - May 2020

It's Rudolph Days again over at Scrappy Mo's! You have until the 31st of the month to enter, if you haven't done so already.

I made a run of six identical Christmas cards, and the bright sunlight here has certainly washed out the dark blue a bit, as well as almost obliterating the embossing on the background, sigh:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" (A2) white card blank, side opening

- a layer of darkish blue card, from a pack of several toning sheets of blue card, picked up in Hobbycraft before lock down, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued in place with Collall All Purpose glue

- then a panel of white card measuring 5" x 3.75" which had been embossed using a Darice ''Snowflake Background' embossing folder, again glued on the card front

- made up the sweater using the same colour blue card plus a lighter shade of blue for the neckline, welt and cuffs. The die set I used is another NBUS item, made by MFT and called 'Comfy Sweater' - it comes with two sizes of sweater and has been around for about three years or so. I was lucky enough to buy mine from a Facebook Decluttering Group, unopened and never been used - another bargain!

- topped the sweater with a white snowflake, cut using a die from The Works 'Snowflakes' set of dies

- then the hunt for a sentiment began - I finally found one saying 'Enjoy the warmth of the season' and another one saying 'Warm holiday wishes'.  But I wanted mention of Christmas itself, sigh. Having then totally coincidentally received an email from Jane W, in which she mentioned that she frequently generates sentiments on her computer, I followed suit and printed off the words I wanted onto white card in dark blue. Something I'd totally forgotten about, yet years ago did it quite frequently. Thanks Jane for the memory nudge!

- die cut the sentiment using a die from Spellbinders 'Nested Pennant' set

- then added quite a lot of thin sticky pad pieces to the backs of the sweater and the sentiment before adhering them to the front of the card

- final touch, a teeny very flat little diamante gem in the centre of the snowflake, so it will still go at standard letter rate

It took a couple of afternoons to make six cards on a 'production line' - but very therapeutic at the same time.

I'd also like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #14 for May as the sweater dies were new and unused.

Hope everyone is staying safe.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #377 - results

 

And we've had yet more sunshine and very high temperatures this week. Although just earlier this morning, Saturday, we had a sudden heavy downpour - which stopped as quickly as it started. The slight relaxation of lock down is still meaning that some are pushing their luck needless to say. We're just carrying on as we have been and keeping our heads down for now. We have a wonderful network of volunteers in our area, divided into 'hubs', and earlier in the week a lovely young chap collected my repeat prescription from a local chemist and delivered it here. And grocery delivery slots are easy to get hold of as well - all of which helps to keep any stress levels down.

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks:

This card design, made by Karen L, is a great way to use up little snippets, of white or even coloured card. I love the squares popped up on foam tape to add dimension as well. I did smile when Karen said in her blog post that the stamp set she used here is about 17 years old - it just proves that some items never seem to look outdated.

And here's another great card design, this one was made by Kath, to remind you of ways to use up little snippets. The rainbow theme is especially topical for many of us right now since it became the symbol of 'hope' during this pandemic. And the addition of the two embossed lines is a neat trick both in terms of placing the butterflies and also adding definition to the card.

And finally, I chose this card (made by Gail/ionabunny) as it uses up lots of little snippets for a start. And, it's also a great reminder that you can look at a die and only use part of the design. The lovely green wreath is made up of several pieces, snipped from die cuts which actually feature a deer's head. By cutting four times, Gail got enough pieces of greenery to make the wreath - and not a single deer's head to be seen. Clever stuff!

So, that's my picks and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of your own snippets. 

We had 50 entries in total, with no new Playmates this time round.

Now for the prize draw, which is for Clearly Besotted's Rainy Day stencil with their 'April Showers' set of stamps and matching dies. And the winner is:

Gail (Ionabunny)

Well done Gail, it's a while since you won a fortnightly prize and I know you always try to join in. Double Happy Dance for you this week - a 'fortnightly pick' and also prize winner! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once we're finally allowed out to play again! Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #378 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a set of Lil'Inker sentiment stamps called 'Just Sayin'. I did chuckle at the number of you who were doubtful about even attempting to make a herringbone pattern background - I promise you, it's easy and good fun - have a go, I dare you.

Do remember that it's the monthly Rudolph Days Challenge over at ScrappyMo's from the 25th to the end of the month!

Dudley is doing fine, and it's definite that he sits on his hind legs to ward off being groomed - little tinker! He now bends forward whilst doing his 'bunny sit' making even grooming his 'undercarriage' more difficult than it needs to be. 

One funny little trait he has is to react to certain things by whining/whimpering and running around with Stinky Monkey in his mouth. He does it if either of us goes out leaving him with the other 'half'. And lately we've noticed another 'trigger'. Len generally makes a cup of fresh coffee around mid-morning and often calls out to ask 'Do you want juice today?'. Some days I have a glass of fresh orange juice and other days I don't so he always asks beforehand. And that two way exchange of just a few words is enough to set Dudley off running around with Monkey in his mouth having a proper little conversation with him! Needless to say, Monkey never whines or whimpers in response though. 

Some recent photos of Dudley Dog to finish off with:

I KNOW you have a treat hidden in your left hand Mama! Slurp.

It's time someone cleaned these flagstones!

Getting ready to start my panting session at the sight of a grooming brush being picked up!

Love from Parsnip, a happy wave and woof from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me. Stay safe - and keep on crafting.

New Hope and Chances mini kit on sale!

Christine has just put another charity mini kit of two cards onto her Hope and Chances blog, sold in aid of the NHS.

If you want one, be fast as they sell out in double quick time!  Here's the link.

xxx

Friends are special treasures

I wanted to make a run of cards, to enclose with the backlog of Snippets Playground prizes which are still here, waiting to be posted off to the winners at some point. I made a run of 10 cards, all the same, using a sentiment stamp which is a great favourite of mine 'Friends are special treasures'. I always think of SaRn when I use this lovely stamp set as I first spotted it over on her blog, a good few years ago now. And also, during this lock down, my blogging friends have become even more precious - if that were possible. Len calls it my 'lifeline to the World' - and he's so right at times.

And once again, I did a bit of cheating. This time with the NBUS Altenew floral border on the cards, see what you think:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" (a2) white card blank, tent style

- cut some 6" x 6" squares of card using the same white card (I actually just halved some of the same card blanks I often use to cut down for the A2 size). These panels were destined to be trimmed down further but if you read on you'll hopefully understand why I did this

- and this is the 'cheats bit' - I used a NBUS product by Altenew (bought it from Seven Hills Crafts) called 'Vibrant Spray Die Cut Tape'. Oh boy, how I LOVE this stuff!

- for each front panel I cut a length of the die cut tape approximately 6" long, peeled off the backing and then adhered it along the bottom edge

- next, I lined up the panel in my guillotine so that one bottom edge of the die cut tape would be cut straight across. Just a question of making sure no white card was left showing, whilst keeping as much of the floral design as possible, and plenty of spare card left above the tape

- then I trimmed the sides to 5.25" width and then across the top of the panel at 4". That allowed me a little bit of 'wiggle room' on either side of the panel to line up the edge cuts as well as possible taking the floral pattern into account. Any slightly 'odd' looking tall parts of the design at the very edges can be easily peeled back and trimmed with small scissors to give a more pleasing effect.

- stamped the sentiment onto the panel using the 'Friends are special treasures' stamp from the Hero Arts 'Live Life' set of sentiment stamps, the Misti and another NBUS item, Versafine's Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad (huge thanks to Kathleen for recommending this - it's brilliant!)

- final step was to glue the panel to the front of the card blank - simples!

These really were great fun to make, particularly for a batch making session, and I've spotted an idea for a different design using the same tape. The way things are going it'll be while until I get those packages posted so there will be a few more winners by then and a few more message cards to be made to include with prizes.

I adore the Altenew border, and you actually get 5 metres on a roll, so although the initial outlay isn't exactly cheap, you'll get a good few cards out of it! They have other designs but this is my favourite, I would be thrilled if they bring out one in a Christmas design needless to say.

A couple of things, the Altenew tape border is very slightly 'off-white' and my card stock here is all bright white. I would have hopped into the car and nipped down the road to Hobbycraft for a pack of slightly off-white card blanks - but of course that's not an option at the moment.

I do love the Versafine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad, it gives such a strong black stamping straight away. However, it's so juicy that you can actually see a faint shading on the reverse of the card, so possible best avoided for one layer cards - unless you sneakily back the inside of the front of the card with a slightly smaller panel of card of course.

Both the above points are purely down to my tendency towards OCD when crafting, this I freely admit!

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #14 May 2020. I love this challenge, so thrilled that Darnell has brought it back. Of course the Altenew tape is my NBUS item, as well as the Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad.

Typing this when I really should be baking. It's too late to begin now so it looks as if I'll be forced to do some more crafting. At long last, I feel as if Mr Mojo is peeking round the door ready to return - I have loads of ideas for Christmas, snippets and other occasion cards racing round in my head! Hooray, it's not before time.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #378

And another week in lock down flies past. Things have been slightly eased in England - which, needless to say, seems to be a signal for a few people to push the boundaries, and their luck, further than they should. Parents are letting their kids out unsupervised, non-family members are calling on people and social distancing is often being ignored even when people are out walking, queuing, going around supermarkets etc. Human nature working against humans in many cases - or just lack of basic common sense.At this rate we might well see a second 'peak'. Rant over - let's move onto happy things!

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight, trying a technique I've wanted to play with for ages:

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of  white card sized at 5.25" x 4", covered with 'medium sticky' double sided adhesive sheet

- a selection of quarter inch wide strips cut from snippets tucked in the back of Studio Calico's 'Snippets Collection' 6" x 6"paper pad - in six different colours/patterns.

- there are lots of videos showing how to make a herringbone panel - this one is my favourite. I used adhesive sheet instead of a tape runner - either would work fine

- spent a very contented time adding the strips to the sticky panel - it struck me that this would be a great craft project to take on holiday (hollow laugh), to make up a load of backgrounds. All you'd need is panels of plain card covered in adhesive paper, with the protective layer left on until needed of course, and a whole load of quarter inch strips of snippets (perhaps kept in separate cello bags for each 'set' of paper strips you wish to use - I think papers from the same pad would generally work well for this pattern - gonna tackle my LOTV Christmas snippets next, plus small scissors. Not recommended for a breezy beach though - beach, what flipping beach?

- the next step, once the herringbone was completed, was to snip off the overhanging ends of the strips - I'd done this after a fashion as I went along so as not to waste any small pieces but trimming the remaining ends from the back of the card panel evens it all up

- then I was faced with a panel which wasn't exactly equal on opposing sides where the chevrons finished - it's the nature of the beast and the video I linked to above accepts this as part of the process

- so I carefully trimmed the herringbone panel, a little bit at a time and ended up with a piece measuring 3.5" x 4.75" - which still kept the A2 card balance/proportions and evened up the pattern edges so they were nice and balanced (OCD again!)

- then layered the herringbone panel onto very slightly larger rectangles of yellow and red paper, from the same paper pad, to add narrow frames

- at this point, it had too wide a white border for my liking when placed on a 5.5" x 4.25" card blank- so I lopped quarter of an inch from the top as well as the opening side of the card blank

- glued the three layers onto the card front, using Collall All Purpose Glue

- then I stamped the sentiment using a NBUS sentiment from Lil'Inker's 'Just Sayin' stamp set - onto a snippet of white card, using the Misti and a Versafine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- trimmed the sentiment rectangle and then 'ticked' which box I wanted to use before layered it onto a background/frame of the same yellow and red paper I'd used for the herringbone rectangle frame. All too often I've ruined something right at the 'last knockings' so I always try to think in terms of 'damage limitation'

- added the sentiment rectangle to the card front, using thin sticky pads to add a little bit of dimension

I loved making this card, especially the herringbone background. It's the selection and slicing of the papers I found to be more onerous - actually building up the herringbone itself is very satisfying!

Am loving the Lil'inkers sentiments set of stamps, most are slightly sassy and I'll use every single one of the stamps at some point

And I can enter this card into our lovely Darnell's NBUS Challenge #14 HERE, due to using the fun Lil'Inkers set of sentiment stamps for the first time. It was a second outing for the Clair ink pad but more details of that this coming week as I sort of flipped my posts around a bit. I do encourage you to join in with Darnell's challenge if you haven't done so already - now is an ideal time to crack open some Never Before Used Schtuff and this current challenge runs to the end of May.

And here is the prize for this fortnight:

It's 2,000 quarter inch wide paper strips! Joke - tee, hee. In fact, it's a set of Lil'Inker sentiment stamps the same as the one I used today - called 'Just Sayin'. As I mentioned previously, Lil'Inker have closed their business, sigh, but I got my paws on these before they become as rare as hens' teeth.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 30th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

No photo of Dudley as I type this on Saturday morning - he's back from his walk and is flat out fast asleep under my desk.

But there have been some developments on the grooming front. Remember that I said that Dudley was sitting up nicely like a bunny rabbit when I groom him and I was beginning to wonder if it was him being helpful or just employing evasive tactics by sitting on his tail and rear end?

Sigh, I think it might be the latter as he's taken to playing hide and seek when we approach '4pm grooming time'. Initially he was hiding under my big corner desk, pressing himself further and further back so that Len has to crawl in to get him out. Next, he ran and hid in one of his cosy beds in our bedroom, curled up pretending to be asleep - if he couldn't see us then perhaps he thought we couldn't see him either. Then he got extra sneaky and we had to really hunt for him - he'd only gone and hopped into his cage which lives behind a door in the lounge! It's so hard not to giggle when he finds somewhere new to hide away - there's never a dull moment with him that's for sure!

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley 'aka The Invisible Man' and of course me,

Hope and Chances - May 2020 card kit

The Hope and Chances card kit for May, sold in aid of the Whizz-Kidz charity, is such a pretty one, sadly now sold out. You have to be so quick to buy these now, they're flying out of Christine's craft cabin door! They go on sale on the first Sunday of the month - June's kit is in aid of The British Hedgehog Preservation Society. I'll most certainly be hoping to get my paws on that one.

This is my finished card, I stuck to the initial design:

The kit came with everything included, apart from glue and either ink pads or pencils to colour the leaves and petals. The cream is a deeper shade than shown in the above photo - bright sunshine here when I took it!

I layered two pieces of cream card onto the A5 card front, topped it with two lovely 'fleur de lis' long die cuts and a square frame. Then coloured the leaves and flowers using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils, two shades for the leaves and two for the flowers. It reminds me of a Clematis Montana with pink streaked flowers that we had in the back garden until fairly recently.

The sentiment also came with the kit so it was just a case of tucking that into the leafy stem and attaching it to the card front. 

Kath (from the Snippets Playground) has already posted about her card here. She cleverly did some tweaking to the kit layout and sentiment, unlike me who rather predictably followed the layout exactly. And she also added Clear Wink of Stella to the flowers and leaves, an idea which I pinched, after colouring and before attaching to the card. Thanks Kath!

Then I had to rummage right through my deep A4 Really Useful Box of pearls, gems and other small embellishments. I have tons of packets of pearls but they were all too white - then I found just a few creamy white different sized ones in an open packet. Bingo!

Our CCTV picked up a fox on camera the other night. In itself that's not too unusual, but it was heading into the dense display of shrubs and such in the front garden. Possibly just for a nosey but it's also a perfect place to make a den and bring up a family! Watch this space.

Hope and Chances card kits for the NHS

Christine Emberson, owner of Hope and Chances, popped back up on my radar a few weeks ago - and I've made a point of trying to buy each of her card kits since then, which she sells to raise money for various charities. I posted March's card a short while ago on here, then sadly I missed out on April's kit - they flew out of the door apparently.

However, Christine put together some 'rainbow' mini card kits during April to raise money for the NHS. Here are the end results, all just 4" x 4" square in size:

Self-explanatory really, all I needed was glue and thin sticky pads, even the sentiments were already stamped - so relaxing to make a card from a kit. As well as raise money for worthwhile causes.

My only boo-boo was the card with the heart rainbow arching out of the small white envelope. I managed to mislay the mini envelope from the kit! However, it was an ideal excuse to treat myself to MFT's 'Mini Mail' set of dies. So cute - and the set comes with the lovely envelope to fold, plain and scalloped inserts, little stamps shapes, tiny hearts and a few other dies. I think the mini envelopes will be a lovely addition to Christmas cards as well. 

And, as I used the set of dies for the very first time, I'm joining in again with Darnell's NBUS Challenge #14 for May.

Sheesh - I actually typed April just then, before remembering that it has whizzed past and we're now into May! And, May's card kit is already on the way to 'chez moi'.

Just in case you need a smile today - turn your sound on too!

Smile is right HERE.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #376 - results

 

What a glorious sunny weekend, so far, for the toned down VE Day 75 Anniversary. The most moving parts of Friday, for me, were when Charles and Camilla laid their wreaths at Balmoral War Memorial just prior to the nationwide two-minute silence. They looked so lonely walking from the church down the driveway, just the two of them and a lone piper waiting at the memorial and playing as they approached (and a TV crew of course, out of shot). It meant much more than any huge parade we thought. And the Queen's broadcast to the Nation on Friday evening was just perfect.

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks:

I couldn't let this wonderful card, made by Liz, go without being a pick. You should pop over to Liz's blog to see it opened, and also to read the story behind it. In short, a wonderful gentleman called Captain Tom Moore here in the UK has, to date, raised over £32 million pounds for our NHS. He did it by walking 100 lengths of his (not pocket handkerchief sized) garden in the run up to his 100th Birthday at the end of April. The Queen has already approved him being made an honorary Colonel - and now a lot of fingers are crossed that he will be recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June. Such a lovely gesture from Liz as well to send him a card.

Love this card made by Kitty - too funny ............. and horribly like I suspect I might look first thing in the morning! Love the coffee bean embossed panel - and what a great way to use up a lot of different coloured snippets, by making fishtail banners to pop behind the image panel. All perfectly matching to colours in the image itself as well!

And, another very similar idea popped up with this fun card made by Lesley G. It's certainly a brilliant way to use up snippets and Lesley went a bit 'above and beyond' by even adding those dear little poppers made from the teeniest snippet of silver card.  What I hadn't realised was, in our 'mail quarantine area'. sat the very same card waiting to be opened! What a lovely surprise that was.

And we had one returning Playmate after a really long absence:

I adore this card, made by Lindsey - who came back to play with us (now using Instagram) after a few years absence. It's so elegant, as her cards always are - come back soon and play again please Lindsey!

So, that's my picks and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of your own snippets. I could have added many, many more picks, as I always say.

We had 48 entries in total - still going strong girls!

Now for the prize draw, which is for Pink & Main's double die set called 'Hugs'  and the set of complementing sentiments called 'Hugs Needed'. And the winner is:

Jackie T

Well done Jackie! I'm extra glad your name popped out as I know you're shopping for a few people who are unable to get their own groceries - so perhaps this truly is Karma working for you. I know I probably already have your address but can you please send it to remind me to package and post your prize. Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once we're finally allowed out to play again! Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

I have a strong suspicion that Len and I will be in the group deemed to be almost the last to leave lock down. But I have kept good records of winners so your prizes will reach you eventually!

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #377 - you can find it HERE. The prize is Clearly Besotted's Rainy Day stencil with their 'April Showers' set of stamps and matching dies.

Dudley is doing fine, he has a 'cool mat' which we keep in his corner of the main bathroom as he likes to lie on the tiled floor in there when it's hot. Last night before going to bed, I popped my head round the door to check on him and he was lying quite comfortably with his head and top half cooling nicely on the cool mat, even though it's big enough for the whole of him to fit on. Earlier in the evening, when we were downstairs, he was doing his impression of a star fish in the tiled hallway. He's certainly not daft when it comes to finding cool places!

I think I may have 'sussed' why he sits on his hind legs when I'm grooming him. It looks like the little tinker has worked out that possibly showing his tummy like that means I can't reach the rest of him such as his back legs, tail and rear end! I'm not sure just yet about his motives so am giving him the benefit of the doubt - it just means more moving him around and tucking him under my left arm!

And here's the little scamp, grubby face from playing in the newly mown grass, late Saturday afternoon. Playing up to the camera - he knows I have one of his favourite treats in one hand, as well as the camera in the other. I know, I know - we have a special soft doormat kept warm and dry in the garage, for him to happily doze on in the garden (to the RHS of the photo) whilst we sit and ruminate over the day's events:

Love from Parsnip, a happy wave and woof from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me. Stay safe - it ain't over until the fat lady sings!